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Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem
Knights of Malta
The exploits of the Knights of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem – the Knights of Malta – are one of the most shining examples of bravery and devotion in history.
It all began around the year 1048 when Blessed Gerard set off from Amalfi with his brethren on their journey to provide care for pilgrims in the Holy Land.
With the permission of Al-Mustan.ir bi’ll.h, the Caliph of Jerusalem, they built a hospice (dedicated to Saint John the Baptist) near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The hospice was open not only to members of the Christian community but also to whomever might have need of treatment and sustenance, regardless of creed. They oversaw the construction of a chapel dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin, later known as Santa Maria dei Latini “la Grande”, as well as the building of two hospitals, one for each gender.
When fundamentalist religious fervour prevailed over a more healthy spirituality and led to the Crusades, the “Hospitallers” took on the role of defenders in addition to their humanitarian efforts, thus becoming a military Order in addition to a charitable one.
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 In 1099, the leader of the first Crusade, Godfrey of Bouillon, donated his possessions in Montboire in Brabant (Belgium) to the Order in gratitude for the treatment given him at the hospital consecrated to St. John the Baptist. The Order was subsequently enriched by similar donations from other
Princes of the Crusades, such as Roger I of Sicily.
In 1104 the Hospitaller Order was recognized as an international organization by Baldwin I, King of Jerusalem.
In 1113, Pope Pasqual II gave his official approval to the Order with the Bull “Pi. Postulatio”. The Order thus became known as the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem and took as their
emblem an eight-pointed cross (as there are eight Beatitudes), already used as a symbol of Amalfi, from where the original founders hailed). Their motto was “Pro fide, pro utilitate hominum”.
Venerable Gerard died on 3 September 1120 and was succeeded by Raymond du Puy who was given the title Grand Master.
It was from this point that the leader of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem – the Knights of Malta – was referred to with this title.
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 The charitable acts performed by the Knights were and still are directed towards all people. A good example of this took place in 1187. In that year, Jerusalem had fallen to the Ottomans and ten Knights were given permission to remain in the city to take care of the Christians who had not been able to pay the ten crowns which Saladin had fixed as the price for their freedom. The Knights took it upon themselves to pay the tribute until they could no longer afford it. The praise of such generosity towards the needy of all faiths reached the ears of Saladin, who wished to confirm whether this was in fact true. He therefore disguised himself as a Muslim beggar and arrived at the door of the hospital where he was immediately offered shelter and food. He accepted the hospitality, but refused to eat for two days. The third morning he was asked what he wanted to eat, and he replied that he wished to eat the thigh of the Grand Master’s favourite horse. Without hesitation the Grand Master ordered that the horse be slaughtered, but before this was done Saladin intervened declaring that his appetite was already satisfied by the great generosity afforded him.
The Knights remained for nearly a century in Jerusalem until 1187, continuously performing acts of charity as well as demonstrating military bravery. They changed headquarters many times, eventually setting on the island of Cyprus in 1292 under the patronage of the Guy of Lusignan. They
remained in Cyprus until 1310, the year in which they transferred to the island of Rhodes. It was here that the Order achieved its most illustrious cultural and political period, evidence of which may be seen in the architecture of the island, which owes its beauty to the Knights.
The Sultan and leader of the Turks Suleiman the Magnificent expelled the Knights from Rhodes on 18 December 1522. They took refuge successively in Candia, in Sicily and then in Rome. They finally settled in Viterbo whilst maintaining their feared fleet in the port of Nice.
In 1530 Emperor Charles V, at the intercession of Pope Clement VII (who was Grand Prior of the Order in Capua) issued letters dated 24 March, granting the Knights the islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino and the fief of Tripoli as recompense for their defence against the Turks. The islands were
thus placed under the jurisdiction of the 42nd Grand Master de l’Isle-Adam, in exchange for an annual gift of a falcon to the King of Sicily.
The sovereignty of the Order would be recognized by all of the Courts of Europe, including the Pontifical Throne (v. Papal Bull of 25 April 1530) with whom they enjoyed full diplomatic relations in the presence of Ambassadors. |
 Because of this, the Order would come to be called the Knights of Malta, which is their most common name to this day, and a name which has frequently been usurped by other organizations whose origins are anything but related to the period when the islands of Malta were under the dominion of the Knights. The power and the glory of the Order in the two centuries following was so great that they received the most diverse and prestigious honours of those times.
The “conquest” of the islands of Malta by Napoleon ended with the full and unconditional surrender of Grand Master von Hompesch on the 12 June 1798. This led to the dispersion of the Knights, with more than ninety percent of them taking refuge in Russia. In January 1797 His Imperial Majesty
Czar Paul I and Emmanuel de Rohan-Polduc signed a document which was ratified on 26 August 1797 in Malta and 29 November 1797 in St. Petersburg. As such, the Order was recognized “in perpetuo” as sovereign within the Russian Empire (with whom they had established both diplomatic relations and a Priory of Russia at St. Petersburg under the protection of the czar).
The Knights of the Grand Priory of Russia and those of other Priories and Grand Priories met in St. Petersburg on the 26 August. By means of a vote, they declared the deposition of the Grand Master Ferdinand von Hompesch and instead invited all of the Priories to declare their allegiance to His
Imperial Majesty Czar Paul I as Protector of the Order.
The Czar received dignitaries of the Order in St. Petersburg on 10 September 1798 and proclaimed his decision to keep the institutions, privileges and honours of the Order of Saint John intact. On 3 October 1798 the Priory of Poland associated itself to the vote, followed by the Priory of Germany twenty days later. Both of these priories accepted the proclamation of 10 September regarding the establishment of the Order in St. Petersburg. However, the members of the French Priory had been dispersed upon the suppression of the Order in France and therefore could not entirely adhere to the proclamation. |
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